After the ship, operated by a Spanish NGO named Proactiva Open Arms, picked up the migrants, it was approached by a vessel from Libya's coast guard. The Libyans demanded that the rescuers hand the migrants over to them under the terms of agreement between Italy and Libya signed last year.
That deal tasked the Libyan coast guard with performing search-and-rescue operations and bringing migrants to detention centers in Libya rather than Italy. At the same time, the Italian Government introduced a "code of conduct" requiring NGOs to cooperate with Libyan authorities.
But, as both human rights groups and media outlets have documented, abuse of migrants is rife in Libya. Unable to pay exorbitant smuggling fees or swindled by traffickers, some are held as slaves, tortured or forced into prostitution.
Most NGOs have stopped their search-and-rescue missions in the central Mediterranean rather than return migrants to Libya or risk crippling penalties; Proactiva Open Arms was one of only two groups still rescuing migrants from the sea.
And when the Libyan coast guard demanded custody of the rescued migrants March 15, the crew of the group's ship refused.
Instead, they headed toward Italy. On March 17, the ship docked in the Sicilian town of Pozzallo. The following day, local prosecutor Carmelo Zuccaro accused Proactiva Open Arms of aiding illegal immigration and had their ship confiscated.
Yesterday, he ordered the crew's cellphones confiscated and also charged Reig and Montes with organised crime, according to local newspaper La Sicilia, which carries up to 15 years in prison. Sarpietro, the judge, rejected that charge.
Proactiva Open Arms maintains that the Italian Government's code of conduct is not legally binding. "There is no law that could force us to hand human beings to Libyan authorities in international waters, especially since we have reason to fear that they will be abused," said the group's spokesman, Riccardo Gatti. The prosecutor's office did not respond to requests for comment.
